Abstract
A principle of doing ‘no harm’ is critical in working with marginalized populations. Developing a simulation-based learning (SBL) method in social justice education is critical since students learn practice skills without posing risk to real clients. Furthermore, incorporating e-Learning environment into SBL is innovative since critically reflecting implicit biases demands a ‘personal’ learning space, where individual learners repeatedly practice their emerging skills without disruptions of others’ judgement thus providing an emotionally, culturally and politically safe educational space to improve professional competence. The e-Learning method works in a self-directed manner, thereby it reduces power imbalances that exist in higher education between learners and instructors and among learners with privileged or underprivileged status. In collaboration with student, instructors and community practitioners, we developed case-based learning contents which were transferred into three types of modules: didactic, digital storytelling, and branching in 4 different levels. To maintain learner engagement, case studies included a mixture of written descriptions of the clients, audio and/or video simulations, featuring professional actors and practicing social workers. Currently, 82 graduate social work students completed the e-Learning modules in different levels. We share details of how we developed different types of modules using the Articulate Storyline 360 platform, which is a cloud-based platform that specializes in creating interactive e-Learning courses; demonstrate selected modules as the outputs; share a pilot study on the participant feedback; and discuss lessons learned through the e-Learning module development and its implications to health and social service providers.
Presenters
Eunjung LeeProfessor, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada Kathryn Bowles
University of Toronto Toula Kourgiantakis
Université Laval
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
E-Learning, Educational Module Development, Simulation-Based Learning, Social Justice Education
